


Reconciliation

by HiddenEye



Series: This, my dear, is love [1]
Category: The Wayhaven Chronicles (Interactive Fiction)
Genre: 70s Timeline, Adam Has a Breakdown and Grows a Beard, And Grows Out His Hair, Bearded Adam, Flirting, M/M, Past Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:55:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24458554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HiddenEye/pseuds/HiddenEye
Summary: “I’m not sure how I feel about the new look. It’s,” He lets his gaze rake over Adam again, carefully taking him in. “Surprising, honestly.”Adam rubs a palm over his beard. “You don’t like it?”
Relationships: Adam du Mortain/Nathaniel “Nate” Sewell
Series: This, my dear, is love [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1770787
Comments: 4
Kudos: 34





	Reconciliation

**Author's Note:**

> I just really like the idea of Adam saying, “fuck it” and went sloppy with his appearance, honestly.

Adam doesn’t know which is more amusing; the look Nate is giving him from where he’s frozen boggled a few feet away from his table, or the long silence that comes after it.

Adam tries not to smile too wide at his friend’s blatant stare, the smell of old french fries more potent when he settles back into the leather booth. “I’m sure the image is burned into your mind now.”

It snaps Nate back to reality, the unsure tilt of his mouth going sideways before he takes the seat in front of him. “I’m not sure how I feel about the new look. It’s,” He lets his gaze rake over Adam again, carefully taking him in. “Surprising, honestly.”

Adam rubs a palm over his beard. He knows how he looks, already expects how Nate is going to react when Adam stares into the old mirror of the motel he’s currently staying in. He assumes the shoulder length hair isn’t helping too. “You don’t like it?”

“Oh, I never said that,” Nate smirks, supporting his weight on his elbows as he leans forward. “It’s interesting, is all I’m saying. You’ve been hacking off your hair ever since we entered this century that I’m starting to forget how you look like with those blonde locks of yours.” 

“You already have a painting of me with long hair,” Adam reminded him wryly, a sharp grin teasing the corners of his mouth. “From the 19th century. As opposed to the many times you’ve already done this, but why not stare at that some more?”

“Lies, Agent du Mortain?” Nate arches an eyebrow, falling back into his seat. “Or a joke? The latter you rarely do, if ever.”

“I’m the picture of hilarity,” Adam replies stonily, causing Nate to let out a quiet laugh before a waitress stops by their table.

She gives them both a bright smile, “Welcome. I’m Rose, and I’ll be your waitress for today. Have you decided to order?”

Nate prattles off what he wants while Adam blinks slowly at the growing amount that will go into their bill. It’s normal for human intake, sure, and that’s considering how people with bigger metabolism would usually take. But for a vampire who barely needs pancakes, maple syrup, and bacon and eggs? It’s excessive, and Adam knows Nate isn’t one to be greedy to the point of wasting.

“And you, sir?”

Adam flickers his gaze to her before snapping it away, grunting slightly. “Hot coffee for me. No sugar.” He pauses. “Please.”

When she leaves, Nate is grinning wide, as if he’s smugly won a lottery. Adam warily stares back at him.

“What?” Nate asks cheerily.

“You,” Adam waves a hand at the waitress’s way. “Are you going to eat all of that?”

“No, we’re sharing.”

“Really.” Adam says flatly.

“Really. It’s because I know you won’t order anything, and I was right.” The teasing drops a bit from his smile. “Humour me in this. I haven’t seen you for ten years, and you’ve gotten yourself a new haircut and grown that animal on your face. Not adding how you dropped the same group of rouge demons we’ve been hunting down on the Agency‘s doorstep.”

Adam stiffens at this, before forcing himself to loosen up the line of his shoulders. “You heard about that.”

It’s not a question, and Nate doesn’t treat it as such. “I knew it was you.”

Adam inhales sharply through his teeth. “How?”

“You think I wouldn’t?” Nate questions, looking somber then. Tired, even. There’s a pang of guilt Adam squelches down with a grind of his jaw. “Every kill you helped us stank of you, my friend. And it’s not even a bad thing, we’re grateful for your help. We just hoped you’d come back to us again so that it’d be easier.”

“There’s a reason why we’re having this dinner and you persuading me to join back the Agency is not it,” Adam growls. “I’m on a break. I told the Agency this. I told _you_ this. I’m not going back in unless I want to.”

There are several _pings!_ coming from the counter, before the cook hollers from the back. Nate doesn’t look away from him. “You were a good leader to our team, still are. Others saw that as much as I did.”

Adam lets out a scathing laugh. “Don’t do that.”

Nate scants up an eyebrow. “Do what?”

“Pretend,” Adam hisses. “Making yourself sound like the Agency. I wasn’t a good leader. You saw how much everything when to shit that day.”

“I _am_ the Agency,” Nate says, and Adam scoffs. “As much as you are. You’re still on the records. We haven’t erased you just yet, sweetheart, and we don’t plan to.”

Adam cocks an eyebrow at the endearment, and Nate smiles sharply at him. “Whatever you think you did,” Nate continues, voice lowered so that it’s just them, as it always has been. “It was an accident, yes. But, they understood that, Adam. A team member got hurt because it’s simply one of the consequences of taking this job, and everyone knew that.”

“It was a _mistake_ , not an accident.”

“No. The Agency established that it was.” Nate narrows his eyes at him. “ _I_ did.”

“You got _hurt_ , Nate.” Adam says harshly.

He remembers how it goes. It’s supposed to be simple, this mission Unit Bravo is assigned to. It’s going into this abandoned building and ambushing Trappers before they kidnap more of their agents or even other monsters and use them as ransom. The price for each individual hasn’t been kind either. 

Adam has been distracted, fending off three of them before there are several gunshots being released. When he looks up, Nate has already fallen to the filthy ground, clutching onto his neck as blood gushes out and streams in between his fingers, gasping out in shock.

The sight whites him out. Before Adam knows it, he’s breathing heavily when he comes to, eyesight focusing back on the scene around him when he realises several bodies are by his feet.

They haven’t been stirring. He rolls them over with his foot and they remain quiet.

Nate folds his fingers together. “I understood the consequences of my job, Adam.”

“You could have _died._ ” 

“With a bullet shot?”

“I recall it to be three,” Adam retorts, before clamping up quickly when Rose pops up beside them and serves their orders. Nate thanks her, flashing her a charming smile while he’s at it. It has the effect he wanted when she blushes, answering a shy one of her own before she leaves. Nate looks at him again. “And you were barely breathing.”

“But I survived,” Nate points out, cutting into his pancakes. “That’s all that matters, doesn’t it?”

“Watching you choking on your own blood matters to me,” Adam counters tautly, reaching for his beverage. “That would have been avoided if I had been careful and not let any of those Trappers out of my sight. Where did they get a gun that could hurt a vampire, I can never know, and it keeps me on my fucking toes until now, Nate.”

“You know how the bullets were coated with some sort of poison?” Nate asks, shoving a bite into his mouth. Adam nods. “We found out what it was.”

Adam straightens in his place. “What?”

Nate chews through his food, deliberately putting Adam through the torture of waiting for him. Then, he swallows. “You would’ve known if you stayed, would you?”

Adam growls, and Nate sneers back at him. “You look just like one of Unit Alpha’s babies.”

“Get on with it.” Adam snaps.

Nate sighs, running his fingers through his hair. “I’m not trying to make you feel bad, Adam. But then, we found out what it was a couple of days after you vanished. Apparently, it was dragon’s blood mixed with scorpion venom.” 

Adam rolls his lips together, forefinger tapping on the surface of the mug. “How did they even think of that?”

“I’m guessing they’ve been feeling a little creative as of late, and decided to test it on one of us to see if it really worked.” Nate shrugs. “It looks like it did. But, not nearly as strong enough to actually put us down.”

Adam eyes him balefully. “You were bedridden for a week, Nate.”

One corner of Nate’s mouth jumps up. “I’m here now, am I not?” Something softens at the corner of his eyes. “What does it take for you to believe that I never blame you for any of that?”

“When I believe it myself,” Adam says, reaching across the table for a strip of bacon and biting down on it. He chews, never letting his gaze break away from Nate. “When I don’t see you not breathing on my lap.”

There’s a blanket of silence settling above their heads, the jukebox blaring out music trailing to where they refuse to back down from this familiar fight. It’s been ten years, and Adam has left the Agency in the dust when they try to find him, where they’ve tried following his trail of kills he’s left for them. It isn’t until he lets them find him, just because he’s tired of running and another part of him wants to hear what they have to say this time.

It’s the same thing. Only this time, they’ve used Nate to do their dirty work, and that’s not fair. They both know how he’ll bend easily if it’s Nate.

“I’m still on a break,” Adam continues, wiping his hands with a napkin before taking a fork for himself. He stabs the scrambled eggs with it. “I won’t be joining the Agency now, or even for another month, if I’m honest.”

Nate watches him eat. “You know how to contact us if you change your mind.”

“I have that number tattooed into my brain,” Adam grumbles. “It’s not going anywhere. I can’t get rid of it even if I tried.”

Nate hums. “When you decide to come back, you’d have to have a trim. I don’t think anyone would recognise you when you decide to walk through those doors. They’d think you’ve truly lost it.”

Adam huffs out laughter. “They’d just have to deal with it. Maybe I like my new look.”

“I seriously find that hard to believe. You don’t do scruffy,” Nate sweeps his eyes over him, interest sparking in that look. “Can’t say I feel the same way.”

“You just missed my long hair,” Adam accuses, lips twisting into a smile. “I’m not even surprised. You couldn’t stop complaining about it after I first cut it off.”

“Yes, well, you weren’t always into the current fashion. Imagine my surprise when you actually did, in the end.” Nate takes a sip of his tea. “Not that any of my opinions matter. You do what you want.”

“I see.” Adam doesn’t look away when Nate flickers his gaze up to meet his. “And that doesn’t bother you?”

Nate blinks at him, before smiling lazily. “No.”

Adam misses this, he realises. He misses Nate. He misses the bickering and dare he say it, the flirting that goes on between them. He doesn’t have that when he’s been living alone, the company he sometimes has fleeting as he moves from one place to another. Sometimes, he’s content with the silence that comes with his journey. And he’s made peace with that as soon as he could.

He doesn’t say that to Nate, doesn’t have to. And if someone is going to ask whether or not they’re having a date, they’re just going to deny it like they always do.

  
  



End file.
